PS1 PS1 games that look better (or worse) without dithering and native resolution.

[xuvetyn96]

PS1 emulators have given us the ability to both remove dithering and increase the resolution of PS1 games. I haven't really utilized this much, and I think that dithering and native resolution actually looks better with some games, mainly Silent Hill 1, which looks weird with no dithering and higher resolution imo.

So my question is: are there games that you prefer with dithering? And, on the other hand, are there ones that you would recommend trying out with a higher resolution and no dithering?

 

[RageBurner]

Hm... while I can't think of specific cases, my rule of thumb is have sprite games be as close to native resolution as possible (Duckstation has very fine grained image control options, it looks great, and I don't mean scanlines necessarily).

For 3D games, 2x or 3x resolution seems to be the sweet spot, I've found. Duckstation, again, offers many options that go beyond what the PS1 could do (notably a special pipeline to lessen polygon Z fighting, a quirk that is normally unfixable), as well as many kinds of post processing.

What I recommend is you play around with options on a case by case basis and save your preferred presets. Sorry for giving you a non-answer, but yeah.

 

[Shameless]

I think pretty much every game looks good without any dithering/filters, but everything looks just better with it. The ps1 was wonky and jank in its rendering and i think needs about every little thing to help up the visuals and dithering especially helps out.

 

[bobobobo2]

it brings to light the lack of detail in many other aspects of the game that were otherwise hidden by the general fuzz. there are a lot more things in a 3d game that have a level of detail that were crafted to match expected resolution, you'd need to adjust/redo a lot for it to not look weird, and even then it might still look a bit barren

 

[dropsmegamega]

Usually I think 2x native with dithering enable plus scaled dithering option to be a good middle ground, I don't want for polygons to be high resolution as they won't blend well with the grainy textures and will just look odd, but I also don't want for things to get too blurry on my screen.

 

[Blamhammer]

Wondering if developers back then made use of the dithering shortcomings to emulate film grain? Slightly off on a tangent but I recently watched Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and was taken aback by the heavy use of fog in the film, with the thought "woah, reminds me of Silent Hill...hmm".
I played MGS1 back on release day and I really can't play the game again with those PS1 quirks present, it adds to the experience imo!
With that in mind maybe just the cinematic or story driven games continue to look good with those effects? Games like GT1 & 2 benifit from the modern emulation features.

In regards to resoultion I think upsampling then downsampling helps preserve the original look, but you may need to tweak it a bit to get it right. Sadly no one click solution to that.

 

[AnonymousCookieMonster]

Was watching a video on the PS1 graphics and what makes it distinctive. Partially bugs, no Z-buffer and the 32bit integar math processing to quickly calculate trigonometry, which seems like it wasn't really meant for 3D (even though they showed off a running T-rex as a selling point).

Another thing they apparently did was... force hardware and globally dithering for all games, even though it was like 32bit color. I'd think it's probably more since it looked generally better on CRT's, but definitely doesn't look good on modern TVs

 

[xuvetyn96]

it brings to light the lack of detail in many other aspects of the game that were otherwise hidden by the general fuzz.

Well said, I was trying to put into words how dithering helps SH1 and this about sums it up.

Wondering if developers back then made use of the dithering shortcomings to emulate film grain? Slightly off on a tangent but I recently watched Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and was taken aback by the heavy use of fog in the film, with the thought "woah, reminds me of Silent Hill...hmm".

I also had that thought about film grain. Also, good movie! Not my favorite Kurosawa but it's probably my favorite adaptation of Shakespeare to the screen that I've seen.

 

[bloodywing]

I can think of games like GT1/2 where any upscaling, and additional eye candy is welcome. But with games where the hardware limitation is actually part of the game, I think it ruins the vibe a bit when removed.

Final Fantasy IX has a weird overworld dithering. Where I tend to turn it off, depending on screensize. It's less noticeable on small screens, like handhelds.

PS1 emulators have given us the ability to both remove dithering and increase the resolution of PS1 games. I haven't really utilized this much, and I think that dithering and native resolution actually looks better with some games, mainly Silent Hill 1, which looks weird with no dithering and higher resolution imo.
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So my question is: are there games that you prefer with dithering? And, on the other hand, are there ones that you would recommend trying out with a higher resolution and no dithering?

 

[RageBurner]

Gran Turismo 1 and 2 are absolutely improved by upscaling and using the PXGP pipeline to reduce polygon Z fighting and texture warping yes (plus some specialized cheats to increase AI car detail, draw distance and other pluses).

Games test rely on tricks and limitations for effects and atmosphere are obviously a trickier case and does require fine tuning.

 

[Yousef]

Gran Turismo 1 and 2 are absolutely improved by upscaling and using the PXGP pipeline to reduce polygon Z fighting and texture warping yes (plus some specialized cheats to increase AI car detail, draw distance and other pluses).

Games test rely on tricks and limitations for effects and atmosphere are obviously a trickier case and does require fine tuning.

I suppose that should be my chance to play em haha. Always been intimidated by Simcade racers.

 

[RageBurner]

I suppose that should be my chance to play em haha. Always been intimidated by Simcade racers.

They are satisfying. I can't go back to pure arcade anymore for the most part.

 

[Shameless]

Wondering if developers back then made use of the dithering shortcomings to emulate film grain? Slightly off on a tangent but I recently watched Akira Kurosawa's Throne of Blood and was taken aback by the heavy use of fog in the film, with the thought "woah, reminds me of Silent Hill...hmm".
I played MGS1 back on release day and I really can't play the game again with those PS1 quirks present, it adds to the experience imo!
With that in mind maybe just the cinematic or story driven games continue to look good with those effects? Games like GT1 & 2 benifit from the modern emulation features.

In regards to resoultion I think upsampling then downsampling helps preserve the original look, but you may need to tweak it a bit to get it right. Sadly no one click solution to that.

One my old games art teachers actually worked on ps1 titles back in the day (biggest being the Tomb Raider games) and she told me that the dithering was very useful when working with the lower bit colour modes like Mode 8 which could only hold 256 colours combine with the rather small texture UV sizes. its also good to know that the dithering was a hardware level thing and couldn't really be controlled so you cant move it around or such to emulate grain.

 

[Zeb89]

Hm... while I can't think of specific cases, my rule of thumb is have sprite games be as close to native resolution as possible (Duckstation has very fine grained image control options, it looks great, and I don't mean scanlines necessarily).

2D games on the Playstation are generally made the same way as 3D ones, just with flat polygons and forward-facing textures (Literally the tecnique used in Castlevania Symphony Of The Night). Just switch the internal resolution back and forth, you will see a decent difference in image quality

 

[Mopeybloke]

Sometimes I try to play a PS1 game upscaled, but I always end up going back to native resolution with CRT shader. Final Fantasy IX is one I tried to play without dithering, at higher colour depth, but the storm effects on the world map look terrible like that.

Also, I suggest trying to use the scaled dithering option in emulators like Bettle PSX HW or Duckstation instead of running the game at 24bbp. That used to be the default option in Duckie, but it's since changed. Not sure why.